Constantine: Cheaper health plan, cuts, could save parks

County executive candidate Dow Constantine on Wednesday said he wants to encourage county employees to switch to a cheaper health plan and make a 2 percent across the board cut in county spending to avoid slashing public health and human services and closing parks.

King County faces a $56 million operating budget deficit next year.

“The situation is unquestionably serious,” Constantine, the County Council chairman, said in an interview. “The executive proposed a $50 million tax increase, we’re not going for that, not in the depths of a recession.”

Constantine

Executive Kurt Triplett has also suggested closing the 39 parks in unincorporated King County and he and others have said public health and human services spending will have to be cut drastically or eliminated all together. The county spend $42 million this year from its general fund on health and human services.

Constantine said his ideas, which also include shifting funds from a mental health and drug dependency tax, cutting the County Council and executive budgets and having the county transfer animal control services, could save up to $75 million a year. A good portion of that could help deal with the general fund deficit, he said.

“These are a starting point,” he said. “I’ve talked with the budget chair, he’s open to discussing these and other ideas. I’ve talked with labor community… This is my plea, we have to discuss these and other innovative ideas thoughtfully to close the budget gap.”

Constantine said he wants to:

Drive down employee health costs. He said King County now offers its workers to plans – King Care and Group Health.

He said 10,000 chose the more expensive KingCare option and 2,000 are with Group Health. Group Health costs about $2,400 less a year, per employee.

“That is something that we would need to negotiate with our workers, but by providing them a modest monetary incentive, we could save the county millions of dollars.”

Constantine estimated savings of about $5 to $10 million a year.

Transfer money from the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) area. A dedicated sales tax raises $45 million a year for such services, Constantine said. By transferring funds – up to $17 million annually – core services like drug and mental health courts could be saved.

“That would be a way to keep the most valuable, most productive programs working,” Constantine said.

Cut the council budget.

Constantine proposed that each of the nine County Council members cut up to $75,000 a year from their budget for up to $600,000 in yearly savings.

Cut the executive budget by 15 percent. This could save up to $6 million annually throughout all the agencies, Constantine said.

Cut 2 percent across the board cut in all county agencies, including the sheriff’s department.

Triplett has proposed up to an 8 percent across the board cut, Constantine said.
“Those cuts would be significantly less than what the current executive is proposing,” Constantine said. That could save about $12 million a year.

Extend the furlough policy. County workers this year took 10 days of unpaid leave. There are negotiations for 12 days of unpaid time off next year. That could save up to $12 million, Constantine said.

Cut overhead costs by $1 million to $2 million year.

Pursue annexations. There are four unincorporated area annexation measures on the ballot this year, including the North Highline, south, annexation. If cities take over services in this area, that, too, could save millions, Constantine said.

Cut animal services. The county should get out of the animal shelter business, Constantine said, and have other public or private agencies do the work. That would save up to $2 million a year, he said.

Other candidates: What took so long?

Cynara Lilly, a spokeswoman for county state Rep. Ross Hunter, said Constantine’s ideas are good but many of them are ones that Hunter had previously proposed in his own campaign for the top county job.

“Dow has seven years on the council, it’s great that he’s finally starting to some of these fixes that have to happen,” Lilly said.

Lilly said the reason that most county employees choose the more expensive health care option is because, unlike many other public and private employees, they don’t pay monthly insurance premiums.

And Constantine’s idea about transferring Mental Illness and Drug Dependency money was made possible by legislation Hunter, D-Bellevue, pushed through the Legislature this year, Lilly said.

The spokesman for Susan Hutchison, Jordan McCarren, said in a statement: “Clearly Dow realizes at this late hour that if you can’t beat her, join her. The necessary cuts, streamlining of government, and fiscal discipline that Susan has been advocating for three months are finally being embraced by the chair of the County Council.”

State Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, who was the first exec candidate to say county employees’ health care benefits were too rich, slammed Constantine.

“After almost eight years on the King County Council, including service as Budget Chair and Council Chair, Dow Constantine seems to have experienced a belated election-year budget conversion. Unfortunately, his proposals for closing the budget gap are a day late and many millions of dollars short,” Jarrett said in a statement. “This budget crisis is too serious for these kinds of political stunts.”

Constantine, who recent polls show is running second behind the fromer television broadcaster Hutchison in the executive’s race, has been criticized recently for his strong support of King County passenger ferries. Hutchison and others have said foot ferries are a waste of money and it’s time to get rid of them.

The King County Ferry District (which is the County Council) levied a countywide property tax in 2009 of about $18 million, resulting in a property tax collection of 5 cents per $1,000 assessed value. That money is used to support passenger ferry service to West Seattle and Vashon as well as future demonstration routes on Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Constantine has said foot ferries are a valuable part of the transit system and that some of his opponents supported them before changing their minds.